Beck's Modern Life: pub

Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 November 2025

New Sydney Hotel, Hobart

Tonight we had tickets to see a show from one of my all time favourites authors, Ben Elton. I have read every one of his books at least 3 times. My favourites are Two Brothers, The First Casualty and Blind Faith. Gudge is a huge fan of his scriptwriting including Blackadder and Upstart Crow.

The show was at 7.30 at the casino so we had time to grab some dinner.

There's not too much I love about Tasmania's State Government, but of the few good things they've done is they provided us residents with tourism vouchers to boost local businesses during the quiet winter off-season.

We were talking our voucher to the New Sydney Hotel, THE quintessential Irish pub in Hobart City.

Photo courtesy of New Sydney Hotel

We've had drinks there in their wonderful beer garden and have tried some small bites. But every time, service and ambience is excellent, from their open fire to their perfectly poured Guinness pints.

Arriving at 5.45 without a reservation, we were snuck in on the proviso that we would clear the table by 7. I actually LOVE when this happens as it's almost a guarantee that service will be quick!

We start with a Coke for Gudge and a Swinging Gate Pet Nat for myself.

We order the 300g Porterhouse, chips, salad and pepper sauce for myself.

Chicken Parmigiana, chips for Gudge as well as Buttermilk fried Chicken to share.

My steak was fantastic! Perfectly medium-rare, nice char, and THICK! Great crispy chips. Salad was a dressed lettuce mix as the salad (which I'm so-so about at a $2.50 extra charge) and a lovely and peppery gravy. I'm totally happy to give this 9 out of 10 for $42.50.

Gudge really enjoyed his Parmy, noting the delicious smokiness of the ham.

The Buffalo Chicken was cooked and seasoned very well, delicious dip but didn't think $16 was very good value for essentially 3 small tenders.

We left very full, satisfied and happy. Headed to the casino with time enough to throw $20 into the pokies and head to the auditorium for an excellent show, surpassing all of my expectations. If you have a chance check out ANYTHING from Ben Elton, you should. He also seems like a lovely man.

The hour drive home went smoothly and were blessed with an aurora viewing before bed.

Fantastic night all round!

If you're in Hobart, do stop in to the New Sydney Hotel.

Address: 87 Bathurst St, Hobart TAS 7000

Phone: (03) 6234 4516

Menu: newsydneyhotel.com.au

Monday, 7 July 2025

A Drive to the Huon Valley

The destination was Tahune Airwalk. The party was myself, and my guest and very good friend from Brisbane and his daughter. From my house Tahune Airwalk, not far from Geeveston is just shy of two and a half hours by car, and with a five year old on board, we opted for an overnight stay.

First stop was one of the prettiest towns in Tasmania, Cygnet. As it was time to eat we stopped into Cygnet Japanese Diner which had opened when we lived down this way (over FIVE years ago).

I ordered the Traditional Okonomiyaki as well as the Takoyaki (Octopus Balls) while my guest ordered a ramen and Miss 5 had a tuna hand roll and an inari.

A short wait and our food arrived, steaming hot and looking wonderful.

I absolutely adore how unpretentious this little cafe is, it totally feels like being back in Japan, with well made, authentic Japanese food and service with a smile.

We had booked a two bedroom, self contained unit at Kermandie Hotel, Port Huon and had dinner at the on site Pub.

photo courtesy of booking.com and Kermandie Hotel

The room was comfortable and very good value and the pub turned out to be quite a surprise.

We were very grateful the pub and restaurant were open, as winter in Tasmania is definitely the OFF season. We were one of only groups occupying the accomodation, but I love this time of year and I love having the state virtually to myself, even if it is cold, and foggy and wonderfully British.

With glasses of Tasmanian wine, we both opted for the fettuccini with scallops and it was absolute perfection. For a creamy pasta, it was delightfully balanced, not heavy at all, great seasoning with a generous amount of delicious scallops.

As it was my birthday, I thought I'd treat myself to dessert. This was the Pina Colada terrine and it was vey lovely indeed. A refreshing frozen pineapple and lime dessert topped with roasted coconut and warm candied pineapple.

We made it to the beautiful Tahune Airwalk, my first time. This area was decimated by bushfire in 2019 and closed for many year afterwards, It is open once again and the forest regeneration is spectacular. It was absolutely worth the drive. We did the airwalk as well as one of the riverside walks and we all enjoyed the whole experience.

Saturday, 14 August 2021

Gretna Green Hotel: Our New Local

So, we moved to the country.

Well in fact we bought a house in the country. I almost can't believe it myself. It's simply wonderful. It's peaceful and quiet, friendly and quirky.

We are quite a way away from, well anything, except the local shop, the local market I work at on Wednesdays and a lovely little pub. Quite a historic wee pub actually, built in 1849 that's EIGHTEEN FORTY NINE and licensed continually since 1862, holy smokes, that's 159 years, (thanks Microsoft calculator).

image courtesy of homely.com.au

The pub has recently been purchased by new owners, and we thought we'd go down and have a meal and support the new owners.

As we pull up to the carpark (90 second drive from home to be accurate) we are surprised by the amount of cars in the driveway, it looks packed. We pull in, wander past the utes full of fire wood and interestingly, deer carcasses, and make our way to the bar.

The place is indeed packed. We had only been once before and it was well, there may have been tumbleweeds, so it was a joy to see the place filled with jovial locals.

We are informed that food may have a little wait, but we are not bothered, but instead grab a couple of drinks (I have a Sav Blanc and a Cascade Draught for G $12) and a menu to decide. We mosey roadside which has recently been revamped with extra tables, chair and firepits and of course the beautiful surrounding countryside.

The menu reads like a classic pub menu with most of the things you'd expect but are never disappointed to see.

We decide on a garlic bread to share $5.50, Parmigiana for G $23 and the seafood basket for myself $30.

Warning aside, the food didn't take too long to come out at all.

I believe it was an epic amount of garlic bread for the price. Great flavour on lovely crisply toasted bread.

It is really difficult to show the sheer size of Gudge's Parmi... it had some serious girth. He reckons it was one of "the better ones I have tried in his life" and that "the chicken was very juicy", he loved the tomato sauce.

My seafood basket was all perfectly cooked and came with I believe was flathead (?), calamari, scallop, prawn cutlet and seafood bite.

The chips were very very good. I am a chip snob and these were without fault (please feel free to click 'chips' in the labels to hear me whinge about or praise chips). I have to say it, the retro curry pasta and egg salad was awesome, I absolutely loved the nostalgia of it. The home made slaw and green salad were both super fresh.

Do you know what? This is honest, real, in no way pretentious pub grub. From a doozy of a country pub.

We'll absolutely be going back, and if we're ever allowed visitors back to Tassie we'll take them too.

We didn't get a chance to meet the owners, but I hope to very soon, and I wish them all the best.

Saturday, 19 October 2013

Hotel Maroochydore

The Maroochydore Hotel, previously the Grinning Dog, I'm not sure why my friends suggested it, but I'm glad they did.

I have to admit, the pub itself has never lured me, and I hadn't eaten here since I have been back on the coast but I suspect that will change.

The menu is incredibly diverse, covering pub usuals: steaks, seafood, pasta, risotto, and includes specialty items like confit pork belly, barbeque ribs, and lamb tzatziki pizza.

Myself and D decided on the BBLT Burger ($10) from the lunch specials menu and S opted for the Rump steak ($10) and we shared 3 sides for the table, battered onion rings, buffalo wings and Parmesan crusted calamari.

I suspect the burger patty was manufactured but dispite this, it was a very delicious burger, containing bacon, cheese, barbeque sauce tomato and lettuce. I think it could have used mayo, but I added some of the aioli from the sides. I also opted to not eat half the bun. The chips were cooked perfectly. Miss S's steak, she tells me was cooked perfectly, juicy and with lovely flavour.

The Parmesan crusted calamari ($8) was also cooked beautifully. The Parmesan flavour was light but detectable. Delicious.

The beer battered onion rings ($8) were light and crisp, served piping hot.

The buffalo wings ($8) had a lovely flavour and the smokey barbeque sauce was excellent. With our food S had a lemon lime and bitters and D and I had a schooner of Carlton Draught each.

Hotel Maroochydore has lunch specials daily and dinner specials most nights. I think it is really good value, and I will be sure to do a write up the next time I head there for pizza night.

Hotel Maroochydore
201 Main Road
Maroochydore
Queensland
Ph: 07 5479 5611

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